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25/01/2012: Reunification Express
We left you guys in Hanoi, from where we hopped on the Reunification Express, a sleeper train that connects Northern and Southern Vietnam, from Hanoi to the former capital, Saigon/ Ho Chi Minh City. First thing to check on the train was the restaurantcoach: the waiter and bartender were so drunk that you could see the bottom of the ocean in their eyes, everybody was eating some kind of noodle soup. I didn't look very clean, like most of the eating places in Vuetnam, so we went back to our beds.We share the cabin with a nice aussie couple, have some wine and fall asleep. We wake up. First stop: Hue. A city with many pagodas and buddhist monasteries, temples and kings. :) We were lost and confused in all the details we got, but one thing we remembered for sure: 3000 concubines!:) that' sa life that King Thuduc had!:) ( before the communists took over Vietnam used to be a Kingdom). Not too much to see and do here, weather still cool so we move on to Hoi An.
Ok now you should be closing your eyes and imagining thousands of colored lights and chinese lanterns, a river full of flating candles in coloful paper baskets. It's a vietnamese tradition for the Lunar New Year to launch these on the river and make a wish. This was Hoi An. A shininng bright lighten city, with nice people, warm weather and bicycles all day! We can not ride very fast because the street and bridges are packed with motorbikes and people. We can hardly move. We swap the bikes for a motorbike cause it's so much easier to squeeze between the masses. We drive up and down the city, we fill up the tank at a "gas staion" located on a street corner. A lady pumps up 4 l of gasoline, cause thats the maximum you can get from her little station. All the for 10$.
The next day we ride to the countryside and see the rice paddies and cruise down the river, with the bicycles on the boat!:) so much fun! Hoi An is famous for it' tailorshops and fine silk.
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